Turkey, the country, that is.
Today, as you sit down to your Thanksgiving turkey, how about saying a prayer for the nation we call Turkey? One slice of Turkey’s population is the 2 million Zaza people that speak, you guessed it, Zazaki.
In the 19th Century, Protestant, and Catholic missionaries came to Eastern Turkey but reached out only to Christians, avoiding Sunni and Alvvi (Islamic) Zazas. They built schools and hospitals, and a great Christian renewal ensued. Unfortunately, these acts of Christian mercy were interpreted as signs of an impending invasion of Christiannations, who indeed did invade as the Ottoman Empire collapsed during WW I. The gospel became associated with enemy espionage and in the 1920′s indigenous Christians and foreign missionaries were driven from Eastern Turkey.
Result: No witness – no believers- no church.
Pray that God would overcome the barrier of the Zaza’s view of Christianity shaped by history and reveal the true Savior, Jesus Christ, to them.
For more information visit: www.pray4zaza.com
